Alpinestars Tech Air 5 Plasma airbag system review

Today I want to talk about airbags; and in particular about the new Alpinestars Plasma 5 airbag vest.

Now this is a tricky subject for us one because we here at Motolegends have not always been great fans of airbags.

And morally that's a difficult tightrope to walk for a company that earns its keep from selling protective wear.

And it's difficult because one cannot deny that, in extremis, an airbag could prevent serious injury. It might even save somebody's life.

But we have had, and to an extent still have, both philosophical as well as practical concerns when it comes to airbags.

Philosophically, we take the view motorcycling is inherently dangerous. Nothing can change that. One might even suggest that an element of risk is part of the appeal. But for me part of that appeal is also the freedom that motorcycling imparts. In the modern world, for most of us, there's not a lot that compares to the joy that skillfully piloting a motorcycle delivers. Driving a car doesn’t come close. There's you, the road, a slither of rubber barely an inch wide that connects you to it. And an assortment of levers that enable you to control the machine. On a good day, the experience borders on the oneiric.

Now there is always a way of adding more protection into the motorcycling equation. Gear that delivers greater levels of abrasion resistance. Larger and heavier armour. A chest protector. A coccyx protector. A hi-viz-vest. Taller, more rigid, off-road style boots. Heavier duty gloves. An FIM approved helmet. And so on.

But if motorcycling becomes little more than the pursuit of greater safety, then it is the act of motorcycling itself that potentially loses out. It will always be dangerous. Yes, you can add layers of protection. But the more layers you add the more you face the prospect of detracting from the excitement that attracted you to two wheels in the first place.

If your every focus is about reducing the risks and the danger to life, you'd be better off in a car. Or a bus. Or a train. Better still, lock the door, and stay at home.

No motorcyclist wants to get injured. And of course nobody wants to die whilst riding their motorcycle, but you can never rule out the possibility that these things could happen. Better in our view to embrace the dangers and ride accordingly. And that's part of the reason that we as a company have never jumped on the airbag bandwagon.

But there's another, more overtly physical and practical reason we have never truly embraced airbags.

So much of our philosophy here is bound up in the concept of ‘passive safety’. This entails riding in a state of the highest achievable level of calm, comfort and concentration. Of being totally relaxed on the bike. Of making sure you don't get too wet. Don't get too cold. And don't get too hot. It's also about being unencumbered such that you can swiftly respond to unforeseen circumstances.

And an airbag is not always consistent with this approach.

Ironically, we were one of the first companies in the UK to market an airbag vest. We came across Helite at a motorcycle show in France at a time when they were attempting to persuade people that their experience in the equestrian world was equally applicable to two-wheeled transportation.

We offered Helite for a number of years. We were never convinced of the reliability of their tethered, firing mechanism, because with a tethered system you can hit something without the airbag going off. But it was the weight and sheer bulk of their vests that didn't sit well with us.

Now the essence of an airbag is that it is airtight. Surrounding your body with a large airtight bag reduces the breathability of whatever you are wearing. To an extent that, in our view, made them potentially dangerous, and even prone in some circumstances to causing an accident rather than preventing one. If, for example, you were riding anywhere where it was really hot. Or where you were generating your own heat; say off road.

In the slightly unthinking pursuit of ever higher levels of protection, Bennett's recently reviewed airbag jackets in an attempt to come up with what they deemed to be the ‘best’. Their favourite seemed to be a Moto Airbag vest. And I do not doubt that, on a technical level, it provides more protection than other airbags, but it's a monstrous affair that more resembles the outfit that Jeremy Renner wore in Hurt Locker when diffusing IUDs than anything you'd want to wear on a motorbike. And personally I cannot conceive of anything more likely to cause me to want to give up motorcycling.

And indeed it’s the bulk, the weight and the lack of breathability of airbags that has historically caused us to steer away from them.

The measures we take to protect ourselves on the bike need to be proportional to the risks involved. I sometimes drive an open-top car, yet I don't routinely don a crash helmet, even though there are scenarios where one could save my life! And so not having been fully convinced of the merit of airbags, I haven’t felt right about trying to foist them upon customers.

In fact, in the background we have always offered airbag vests and jackets. At times because some of our clothing brands have made it clear that we needed to. But we have never truly championed them because we never felt that we had come across one that ticked all the boxes we would want to be ticked.

We could see what was coming out of people like Dainese and Alpinestars; and it was obvious, even to us, that airbags were getting, lighter and easier to wear. But until we came across the Plasma 5 we didn't feel that anyone had quite cracked it.

Well the Plasma 5 is different. We think it signals the fact that the airbag has eventually come of age. Our philosophical objections remain. For most riders, for most journeys, we still think an airbag could be considered over the top.

But if you are somebody minded to ride with an airbag vest, for whatever reason, you might want to take a look at the Plasma 5. It's truly next level. Yes, there are airbags that offer more protection. Indeed, Alpinestars themselves offer such airbags. But if you are looking for a balance of lightness, breathability, wearability and protection, then this might be the one you have, and indeed we have, been waiting for.

Introducing the Tech Air Plasma 5

First thing. This is a vest you wear beneath your protective jacket. And we have always felt that this is where the airbag should be. It has never made sense to us to expose the airbag to the greater chance that it might get damaged by having it as the first item that comes into contact with the road, or whatever you hit, when you come off the bike.

Plus, and this may just be a personal thing, we think walking around with a huge airbag strapped strapped to the outside of your motorcycle jacket whenever you get off the bike just doesn’t look right. I know I will be slated on social media for saying this, but it just doesn’t look cool. And deep down every motorcyclist still wants to look a little bit cool!

But historically the problem has been that many airbags were so big that wearing them outside a protective jacket was the only practical option.

A lot, of course, could be worn on the inside, but the Plasma 5 is the first one that we’ve come across that can be worn beneath a motorcycle jacket without making you look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In fact, once you’ve removed the back protector from your jacket the Plasma 5 is usually going to be nigh on invisible to the outside world.

It is lightweight and comfortable in the way that no other airbag vest we have come across is. Indeed, coming in at just 3lbs., or 1500g., it’s a whole 25% lighter than the current Tech-Air 5. I wouldn’t quite go as far as suggesting that you won’t know you’re wearing it, but it’s as close to achieving that feeling as an airbag vest has ever got.

Unlike the old Tech-Air 5, it’s super-stretchy, and the Level 2 back protector, which incorporates a single deployment canister for a much lower profile will not be the giveaway that beneath your jacket there’s an airbag ready to leap in to action.

But what we particularly like about the Plasma 5 is the way it is contoured, particularly at the front. It sits longer on the back, although it’s still short enough to wear with a pair of jeans.

As you can see, at the front, the airbag is shaped to protect the chest, the ribs, the neck and the shoulders. But in the stomach area, in your core, there’s mesh panelling to allow the oncoming air to keep you cool, and to allow you to pump cooler blood around the body.

And, of course, as I have mentioned, this was always one of our key objections when it came to airbags; namely that they could cause you to overheat. Well, for the first time, here we have an airbag jacket that properly recognises this problem.

Now having stated that one of our issues with airbags has been the fact that, being airtight, they don’t flow air, the construction of the airbag on the Plasma 5 does also incorporate dozens of holes within the construction of the bag itself, very much, again, to allow air to reach the body.

As an aside, we have always thought that the Klim Marrakesh was the perfect jacket for wearing over an airbag. It’s naturally got more than enough stretch for any airbag deployment, but importantly it flows air through every panel, and that’s going to work particularly well here with the Plasma 5 because it’s going to complement the airbag to allow the oncoming air to keep you cool.

Of course, everything is a compromise. Everything is a trade off. And so it has to be accepted that there are other airbags out there that offer more coverage of the body, and therefore more protection. And indeed Alpinestars themselves offer models like the Tech-Air 7 and the Tech-Air 10 that indeed do, but going back to our belief that it’s all about taking protective measures that are proportional to the risks, we would take the view that, for now, with the current level of technology that is available to us, the Plasma 5 hits that sweet spot between wearability and protection.

The Plasma 5 in detail

In this review we’re not aiming to tell you which button to use when. I am sure you’ll find videos online that do that. And, of course, as we’re clearly going to be a stockist we can go through all this when you come into the shop. But for now what I’m going to do is run through the Plasma 5’s key features and benefits.

Unlike the standard Tech-Air 5, the Plasma 5 comes with three different switchable, riding modes. There’s Street mode, there’s Off-Road mode and there’s Race mode, the idea being that for most people this is going to be the one airbag that will cover every eventuality.

And I suppose that would encompass people like me. 90% of my riding is on the road, yet when we get the opportunity Sara and I like to take our CRFs out for a bit of green laning. And two or three times a year we’ll do track days on our CB500s.

Now if you’re a serious trackday aficionado, you might want to go for the Tech-Air 7 or Tech-Air 10. And if you live your two-wheeled life in the mud and the rough stuff you might want to go for the Tech-Air MX or the Tech-Air Off-Road, but for anybody who wants an airbag that is going to look out for them in most of the situations in which they might find themselves, the Plasma 5 is probably the answer.

The difference between the modes, obviously, is the configuration of the firing algorithm. In Off-Road mode, it won’t go off in response to even quite aggressive changes in direction, or if you get a bit of air over the bumps, but it will still detect those changes that spell a hard landing. The Race mode will not fire up until you hit 60 kph as you filter on to the circuit, so if you accidentally drop the bike in the pit garage there won’t be a deployment.

Street mode, as you would expect, is for road riding, but also for light gravel tracks. So you would probably leave it in this setting if you were riding the Salisbury Plain, for example. It is the most sensitive of all the settings; the bag will even deploy if you’re sat at the lights, and somebody hits you from behind.

One of the reasons the Plasma 5 is lighter and lower profile than some airbags is that it is fitted with just one gas canister. But it is this that accounts for the fact that it also deploys faster. When the airbag does go off it inflates in between 25 and 50 milliseconds. That’s four times faster than the blink of an eye.

But here’s the thing, the airbag doesn’t just inflate when you hit something. It detects unusual movements such that it anticipates an accident, meaning that in most situations the airbag will be inflated well before any collision. And it can do that because the algorithms monitor your progress 1000 times a second in response to the three accelerometers and three gyroscopes that detect changes in direction.

When it goes off the Plasma 5 stays fully inflated for five seconds, which should be enough given that the average accident has a duration of just two seconds. The bag then gradually deflates over a period of 60 seconds.

And what Alpinestars tells us is that where the airbag is deployed, and that includes most of the back as well as the chest, the neck and the shoulders, the impact on the body is reduced by 95%. By my calculations, that sounds like a twentieth of the force of an impact gets transmitted to the body!

In terms of protection for the spine, we have already mentioned that the Plasma 5 has a Level 2 back protector; what’s more it’s quite D3O-like in its construction, so is light and flexible. But when the airbag inflates it delivers protection to the spine equivalent to four standard, Level 1 protectors which, in my book, equates to two Level 2 protectors.

The other thing that Alpinestars has got right with the Plasma 5, in our view, is the cost, the charging structure, and the servicing. The cost is £699. Now that’s not cheap, but it’s a lot less than airbags used to cost.

And over time it’s going to work out far less than those airbags where you have to keep paying an annual subscription charge if you want to be supplied with updated algorithms and software. If you buy an airbag on this basis, it doesn’t take that long to find that you’ve paid over a grand. And even then there’s still no end in sight!

Back in the day, it was also quite a palaver, and quite an expense, to get your airbag checked over and re-equipped after a deployment. Well, there’s none of that malarkey with the Plasma 5. After a deployment you can change the canister yourself. A canister costs around £100. And it takes just a couple of minutes to replace. What Alpinestars also tells us is that the airbag is good for up to six deployments before it needs to go back to what they call a ‘hub’ for a service, the charge for which would be £299.99.

But here’s a question for you. If your Plasma 5 airbag does deploy six times, then it might be time to ask yourself whether you’re pushing a bit hard; and whether really you should be looking at something with four wheels. Something safer made by somebody like Volvo!

The Plasma 5 in use

To set the Plasma 5 up you simply scan the QR code that’s attached to it, and register on the App. Now some people love Apps. But there are people who don’t live life through their phones, and who don’t want to be beholden to an App. to be able to get on with their daily comings and goings.

And so whilst there is an App., and whilst many people will find it invaluable, you don’t need it to be able to use the Plasma 5 on a daily basis. Yet the App. is still important. You’ll need it to register your airbag and to update the software. The App. will also tell you when it’s time to send your vest off for servicing. There’s another feature in the App. that’s called ‘Track Your Ride’. Now some people just like to geek out on things like this, but if you do have an accident this will tell you what was going on before it took place. Indeed you may even be able to prove that you were riding much slower than the guy who pulled out in front of you said you were travelling at. Or perhaps not!

The vest will charge up fully in four hours. Once it’s charged, it’s good for 30 hours of riding. If not used, the airbag will hold its charge for up to a couple of months. The App. will tell you what the charge status is; but failing that you just need to make sure you keep on top of your charging given how much riding you actually do.

When you put the jacket on, and zip it up, a sensor will vibrate to let you know it’s fired up, and ready to rock and roll. There’s a similar buzz when you take it off.

A set of LEDs that you can then toggle between will allow you to check on the status of the airbag, and to alter the riding mode.

Some pointers

Low profile as the Plasma 5 is, you should still only wear it beneath a jacket that declares itself to be ‘airbag ready’, or that has enough room to allow the airbag to inflate within it without doing you or the jacket damage. The advice was always to have about a golf ball’s worth of space inside the jacket. And that still holds true.

We recently reviewed Alpinestars own AMT-8 jacket, and with its removable waterproof liner this would be a great jacket to wear over the Plasma 5 even in the warmest conditions. But, as we’ve said, our ‘go-to’ would still probably be the Marrakesh. Nobody would be able to tell you were wearing an airbag beneath it, and the amount of stretch it contains would allow it to easily expand to accommodate even the most voluminous of airbags.

Now you would, logically, remove the back protector from any jacket you wore over the Plasma 5. You are still going to need elbow armour, because the Plasma 5 does not purport to offer any protection to your arms; only to your shoulders. But with the low profile nature of modern D3O-style armour, like Diablo, a case could be made for still wearing your shoulder armour. It could come in handy if, for whatever reason, the bag didn’t deploy and, of course, it would offer you limb protection if your airbag ran out of charge mid-ride.

It has been put to us that you might choose to still wear a chest protector. But I would see this as less about the absorption of the energy of an impact, and more about providing an extra barrier against penetration, which is not what airbags do.

If you do decide to wear a Plasma 5 it probably makes sense to carry with you a spare argon gas canister, especially if you are touring somewhere a long way from home.

But if you decide to do this, and you’re flying, you will have to put the canister in your hold luggage, accompanied by the paperwork that can be downloaded from the Alpinestars App.. But even then you might come across the over-zealous border control operative who decides to exercise his inalienable right to ruin your day by creating a delay significant enough to cause you to miss your flight!

In terms of sizing, the airbag comes in eight sizes. XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL and 4XL. Clearly, Alpinestars believe this is enough. Equally clearly they don’t feel that women require a different sizing matrix.

Finally, the warranty is two years, but before going ahead you should perhaps check, and make yourself comfortable with, what is incorporated within that warranty.

So where do we, as Motolegends, get to?

Well, as I said in the intro., I have never in the past been convinced of the merits of airbag vests.

And that was partly an emotional thing because having been a biker for as long as I have, I kind of took the view that real bikers didn’t wear airbags. I felt airbags were a bit ‘Nanny State’. A device that sucked the fun out of riding a motorbike. I have also had practical reservations about their impact on comfort, especially when riding in warmer weather.

And this was conflicting. As a company we are all about enhancing the riding experience for our customers. And whilst not necessarily being the prime consideration, being appropriately protected has always been part of that equation.

In the early days of airbag vests, I took the view that they detracted more from the riding experience than they added. They were always popular with that holier-than-thou, somewhat prosthltetizing style of biker that one sometimes comes across in the IAM and ROSPA. And I knew that airbags seemed to be becoming popular with those hapless riders who suggested that wearing an airbag was a deal-breaking condition imposed upon them by their demanding other halves, although I never really knew what they feared the most. Riding a motorcycle or their wives!

But we have never sold things purely because we thought they were going to be popular, and would sell well. If that were the case we’d be doing a roaring trade in one-piece leathers, heavily-lined Kevlar jeans, £100 helmets, cheap laminate jackets and AAA-rated hoodies!

But I think that I have always suspected that there would come a time when, despite my Canutian proclivities, technology would make it difficult for me to continue attempting to hold back the tide.

And I suppose now feels as though it might be that time. Despite severe pressures from manufacturers and distributors over the years I have barely given more than a second thought to any of the airbag vests that have been presented to us. Rarely do we respond well to sales pressure. But in this instance the tables were very much turned.

Alpinestars didn’t approach us about taking on the Plasma 5. Quite the reverse. Having done my research it was me who went to them, very much cap in hand, hoping that despite the fact that we had never shown much interest in their mainstream wares, they would be willing to appoint us as a seller. And through lucky circumstance - someone we had known in a former life - they appeared willing to do so.

And so this is where we are. The Plasma 5, in our view, currently represents the zenith of airbag technology. We think it’s in a different league to any other airbag vest out there; such that we can see its appeal to an audience that is wider than those who are perpetually riven by fear and social pressures.

Now I do not purport to be an arbiter of what bikers should and should not wear on the bike. In fact, in so many ways, I often find myself in opposition to the prevailing zeitgeist. But I know that I will be asked whether I personally am sufficiently convinced by the proposition to wear a Plasma 5.

And the truth is that for most of my riding I probably won’t.

Most of my riding these days sees me out on the road for no more than an hour or two on a fine day. A short hop down to Cowdray Park for breakfast. A company outing to the East Beach Café for fish and chips on a Friday evening. A Sky Deer Park barbecue with friends at the weekend. And usually these are impromptu affairs. I won’t want to have to check that I’ve remembered to charge my vest. And I won’t want to put pressure on those I’m riding with to follow my example.

And highly as I regard the Plasma 5, I probably wouldn’t want to take one with me on one of those exotic adventures that Sara likes to arrange for us in hot, steamy and inhospitable parts of the world where, as far as I’m concerned, staying cool is the main secret to getting through to the end of the day.

But for longer rides, for weekends in France perhaps, like the one we’re currently planning to the Vosges mountains next Spring, then as long as I could wear my Marrakesh on top in order to stay cool, then yes I think I would wear the Plasma 5.

You can buy the Alpinestars Tech Air 5 Plasma airbag vest with free next day UK delivery online, or visit our store in Guildford to try one on.